People
Assistant Professor (Research) of Biology, Principle Investigator
Ayelet Voskoboynik is an expert in the field of urochordate immunology and stem cell biology. Her studies greatly contribute to the development of the colonial chordate Botryllus schlosseri as a model organism.
Ayelet led the Botryllus genome project and isolated BHF, the gene that encodes self/non-self and determines “graft” outcomes in this organism. She identified the first adult stem cell niche and the first germline stem cell niche in Botryllus, and led a thorough cellular, molecular, and functional characterization of the Botryllus immune system. Ayelet also led an international effort to build the Tabula compositi chordate, an atlas of Botryllus embryogenesis and blastogenesis and have compared the molecular programs of these two developmental pathways. Dr. Voskoboynik work has opened the door to a better understanding of the evolution of stem cell and immune cell properties during development, regeneration, transplantation, and aging.
Post-Doctoral Scholars
Chiara Anselmi's expertise is in the areas of regeneration, evolution, the nervous system and cell biology. She uses a marine colonial tunicate, Botryllus schlosseri, characterized by having robust regenerative capabilities and an assayable and frequent (weekly) CNS (Central nervous system) tissue regeneration and loss throughout adult life. She believes that comparative studies on a simple chordate can help us elucidate the principal mechanisms that are the foundation of regeneration and aging. Chiara uses a multidisciplinary methodology that integrates advanced single cell RNAseq, imaging, multi-parameter flow cytometric isolation of cellular populations and transplantation assays to elucidate the cellular and genetic changes associated with neuronal degeneration process in young and old colonies.
Tal Gordon is a zoologist and molecular biologist interested in the molecular basis of regeneration. Her research focuses on stem cells and regeneration in ascidians, a group of marine invertebrates that represent the closest living relatives of the vertebrates. One of the main questions that motivate's her research is whether regeneration capabilities lost during evolution can, at least to some extent, be re-acquired. As regeneration is not universal in the animal kingdom, she hypothesizes that comparing regeneration in species with distinct regenerative capacities will lead to the discovery of key components of regeneration. During her postdoc in the Weissman Lab, she intends to use comparative genomics to identify conserved cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie ascidians’ regeneration.
Tom Levy
Honors & Awards
Gruss Lipper Postdoctoral Fellowship for Biomedical Research,
The EGL Charitable Foundation (2021-2023)
Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yad Hanadiv Foundation (2021-2022)
Vaadia-BARD Postdoctoral Fellowship, US-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (2021-2022)
Stanford School of Medicine Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship,
Stanford School of Medicine (2021)
Emergency Postdoctoral Fellowships for Israeli Researchers in Israel, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (2020-2022)
Professional Education
PhD, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Life Sciences - Physiology and Endocrinology (2019)
MSc (Summa Cum Laude), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Life Sciences (2016)
BSc (Summa Cum Laude), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Marine Biology and Biotechnology (2014)
Research Assistants
Kathi Ishizuka has worked as a Research Assistant in our lab for the past plus 30 years. She was first introduced to research as an undergraduate volunteer in Colin Pittendrigh's laboratory, then Director of Hopkins Marine Station. Here she found a vocation where “one could ask all the questions one wanted” and joined the Weissman Lab at Hopkins a few years later. She has been involved with the development of the lab’s mariculture system and the rearing/breeding of Botryllus colonies and sampling techniques creating a huge inventory for current and future experiments. Due to her vast knowledge of the biology and anatomy of Botryllus schlosseri, Kathi has mentored postdoctoral and graduate students and visiting investigators from various labs around the word. Email: kathii@stanford.edu
Karla Palmeri is an outstanding molecular biologist. She has worked at Hopkins Marine Station for the past 30 years raising and crossing Botryllus colonies and preparing samples for genomic and transcriptomic sequencing. Karla adopted molecular biological approaches to understand the genetics of histocompatibility, or the genetic determination of stem cells. In recent years she has produced hundreds of Botryllus tissue specific cDNA libraries for next generation sequencing, contributing significantly to the Botryllus genomic and transcriptomic projects. Email: karla@stanford.edu
Lab Alumni
Pushkarev Dmitri, Rosental Benyamin, Kowarsky Mark.